116 Developmental perspectives The NSW Office of

1/16
Developmental perspectives
The NSW Office of Child Care (Department of Community
Services, DoCS)
published a document in 2002 called the NSW Curriculum
Framework for
Children's Services: A practice of relationships (.pdf 1.4 MB).
This
document has some interesting perspectives of the role of child
development and developmental norms. It is important to
consider multiple
A basic introduction to child
development theories
A basic introduction to child development theories
2/16 Centre for Learning Innovation
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and
Training, 2006
Contents

Child development theorists
....................................................... 3
Use of
theories............................................................................ 3
Emotional and psychological development
................................ 4
Erik Erikson
...............................................................................................
........... 4
John Bowlby
...............................................................................................
.......... 4
Mary Ainsworth
...............................................................................................
...... 4
Cognitive development
............................................................... 4
Jean
Piaget.....................................................................................
...................... 4
Lev Vygotsky
...............................................................................................
......... 5
Other theories of cognitive development
.............................................................. 7
Physical development
................................................................. 7
Language development

.............................................................. 7
Lev Vygotsky
...............................................................................................
......... 8
BF Skinner, John Watson and Albert Bandura
.................................................... 8
Noam Chomsky
...............................................................................................
..... 8
Other language theories
....................................................................................... 8
Social development
.................................................................... 9
Uri Bronfenbrenner
...............................................................................................
9
Lev Vygotsky
...............................................................................................
......... 9
Social play
................................................................................ 10
Jean Piaget and Sara Smilansky
....................................................................... 10
Sara Smilansky
...............................................................................................
... 10
Mildred Parten

...............................................................................................
..... 12
Kenneth H. Rubin
...............................................................................................
13
Jerome Singer
...............................................................................................
..... 14
Development of autonomy and independence .........................
14
References
............................................................................... 16
Centre for Learning Innovation 3/16
Child development theorists
There are a number of different theorists associated with child
development. The
table below lists those most well known.
Table 1: Major theorists
Theoretical
approach
Principles of the theory Theorist

Maturation Growth and development occur in orderly
stages and sequence. The individual genetic
timetable affects rate of maturation.
Arnold Gesell (1880
1961)
Psychodynamic Behaviour is controlled by unconscious
urges. Three components of the mind are id,
ego and super ego.
Sigmund Freud
(1856 1939)
Psychosocial Personality develops in eight stages
throughout a lifetime. Development is
influenced through interactions with family,
friends and culture.
Jean Piaget (1896
1980)
Lev Vygotsky (1896
1934)
Cognitive Qualitative changes in the way children
think. The child is considered an active
learner going through stages.
Erik Erikson (1902
1994)
Behaviourist Learning is gradual and continuous.
Development is a sequence of specific
conditional behaviours. Main emphasis is on

the environment, not heredity. Observable
behaviours are considered most important.
John Watson (1878
1958)
BF Skinner (1904
1990)
Albert Bandura (1925)
Ecological Balance between nature and nurture. Child
is placed in the middle of concentric factors
which all influence the child. Emphasis is
placed both on environment and heredity.
Uri Bronfenbrenner
(1917 2005)
Information processing
theory
We all have an innate learning ability.
Children are born with specialised
information processing abilities that enable
them to figure out structure of development.
Noam Chomsky
(1928
Use of theories
All of the above theorists have valid views that can be useful to
consider. Many
children's services professionals believe in taking an eclectic
approach to theory. By
understanding each theoretical approach, you can use parts of

the theory, if the
context the child and the situation seem appropriate, and if it is
a useful way to
further your understanding.
Training, 2006
Theories can help you interpret your observations, but are of
little or no use without
your
Emotional and psychological development
Three theorists specifically associated with emotional and
psychological development
are Erik Erikson, John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth.
Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson built upon Sigmund
across the lifespan. He believed that in each stage we face a
crisis that needs to be
resolved in order for us to develop socially and emotionally.
Each stage has a positive
or negative outcome, though we tend not to be at either end of
the spectrum. The
outcome of the stage is determined by our environment, and the
care giving
strategies or experiences to which we are exposed.
John Bowlby

John Bowlby examined the attachment relationship between
parents and their
children. He identified four phases in which attachment
develops. He believed that
children are born with a variety of behaviours that encourage
parents and others to be
near to them. These proximity-seeking behaviours include
laughing, gurgling and
crying. Attachment of the child and parent develops over a
period of time and is
mainly achieved by the routine care giving tasks that parents
and children are
involved in (Berk, 1996).
Mary Ainsworth
Mary A
to test the quality of the attachment relationship between
mothers and their children.
The Strange Situation will determine whether the infant is
securely attached,
insecurely attached or avoidant of the parent (Berk, 1996).
Cognitive development
Theorists such as Piaget, Vygotsky and Skinner developed
theories based on
research around cognitive development, and a variety of
approaches to teaching have
since grown from that work and the work of other theorists.
Other approaches
concerned with cognitive development include ehaviourism ,
nformation
processing , and onstructivism .
Jean Piaget

passed through four separate stages and changed qualitatively in
each of these
stages. He emphasised the importance of maturation and the
provision of a
stimulating environment for children to explore. He believed
children were active
es are:
-motor stage Birth to 2 years. This stage consists of
six sub-stages
infancy. Children are using their physical or motor skills and
their senses to
explore their world and develop their cognitive understandings.
-operational stage 2 to 7 years. In this stage children are
less reliant upon
senses and physical exploration and, according to Piaget,
During this stage, for example, children can be shown that two
balls of dough are
exactly the same size, and they will agree that the balls are the
same size, but
when one is flattened, they will usually tell you that one of
them is now bigger.
This inability to conserve is a feature of the preoperational
stage.

with middle
childhood, children are beginning to be able to demonstrate
much more logical
thinking, although they need concrete materials to help them
reach the correct
conclusions. Thus in this stage you will see children working on
mathematical
problems but using blocks, counters or even their fingers to help
them work out
the answer.
encompasses the rest of
our lives. Piaget believed that once we reached the age of 12 we
were capable
can deal with much more complex issues.
Piaget has been, and continues to be, an important influence on
how we think about
s thinking skills. He was important because he saw children as
active
participants in their own learning. s thinking
developing in stages, but he emphasised the social and cultural
influences on a
s learning.
Lev Vygotsky
While this Russian theorist died in 1934, his work only found a
broader audience in
the 1990s. Vygotsky developed his theories around the same
time as Jean Piaget yet
he emphasised the importance of relationships and interactions

between children and
more knowledgeable
teachers or peers (Berk, 1996).
Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky did not see the child as a solitary
discoverer of knowledge,
but as learning within social interactions that involve
communicating. Vygotsky
therefore also emphasised the role of language in the
development of thinking
processes.
Like Piaget, he saw children as active partners in their own
learning, and increasingly
so as their ability to interact with others develops. He therefore
emphasised the
importance of language development, learni s cognitive
development.
Training, 2006
It was Vygotsky that thinking in concepts was not possible
without verbal
thinking. While thought and language initially develop
independently, they are merged
once language is developed to create verbal thought. Speech and
thought change
over time and become more internalised.
Vygotsky saw the ad s behaviour.
When you scaffold a building, you support it structurally while

internal developments
occur. It is a common sight on building sites. We scaffold chil s
development
almost without thinking. Consider this example:
Bonnie is completing a three-piece puzzle with knobs on top.
She has the last piece over the
space, but it is upside down. She pushes harder. Her caregiver
says, 'Try turning it, Bonnie',
but Bonnie looks confused. The caregiver puts her hand over
Bonnie's, and turns the piece
slightly, saying, 'See, Bonnie? Turn it'.
Vygotsky also saw the child s ability to think logically as
developing in stages. He
outlined four different stages of conceptual development, as in
Table 2 below.
Table 2: , adapted from
Nixon and Aldwinckle (2003)
Stage Characteristics
1. Thinking in
unordered
heaps
-solving techniques
-phases
2. Thinking in

complex
stage
objects, but not in a consistent manner
-phases
3. Thinking in
concepts
stage
concepts and make associations
4. Thinking in
true concepts
stage
concepts
While Piaget felt there was no use in presenting material s and
problems to children
beyond their developmental capacity, Vygotsky saw an
important role for adults in
extending children s learning beyond areas in which they are
independently capable.
Vygotsky used the term Zone of Proximal Development to
describe the extension of
skills a child is capable of with adult help. Consider this

example:
A toddler has a large knob puzzle with a simple bear shape. The
toddler tries to put the teddy
in the hole, but has it upside down. He tries to get it in, cannot
and moves away. This child,
operating independently, is unable to complete the puzzle. A
caregiver might then help the
toddler with the puzzle and say ook, here are his ears, see, here
is the space for the ears .
The caregiver then puts the teddy bear the right way up and just
to the side of the hole. The
toddler slips the puzzle into place. Now the toddler is capable
of doing the puzzle. By careful
evelopment has been expanded.
Other theories of cognitive development
Jerome Bruner (b 1915) also emphasised the connection
between language and
thought. He saw children as active participants in making sense
of their world. Like
Vygotsky, he saw cognitive development to be a social process
and he promoted the
idea of discovery learning, where the environment provides the
answers but the child
makes the connections. He also used the term scaffolding to
describe the role of

Information processing theory
This theory
in through the senses, being processed, and memory skills being
used to decide if the
material is retained or lost.
Learning theories
Behaviourists, or learning theorists Bandura, Skinner and others
emphasise the
importance of reward or punishment in , as well as the
importance of role models and caregiver input (Nixon and
Aldwinckle, 2003).
Physical development
The American theorist and researcher Arnold Gesell (1880
1961) was an early
proponent of maturational theory. He identified the role of
nature or heredity in
-running debate about whether our biological
heritage ( nature ) is more important than the environment we
are brought up in
( nurture ). In this context, environment is seen to be
everything external
that contributes to our development, such as care giving
strategies, parenting styles
and other influences. Nature is considered to be our biological
inheritance. The
genes in our bodies determine what colour eyes we have, for
instance, and also at
what age we start walking.
Gesell gathered normative data on a range of children and made
this information
accessible to the general public. He

unfolded according to a genetic timetable. He developed a
timetable of developmental
events which we still use today.
Language development
Understanding theories of language can form a foundation for
your own views and
beliefs on how you think children develop their language and
communication skills.
The theories discussed here are those by Lev Vygotsky, BF
Skinner, John Watson,
Albert Bandura and Noam Chomsky.
Training, 2006
Lev Vygotsky
Vygotsky identified four different stages of speech
development.
the child is
beginning to learn to speak, mainly imitating words and naming
objects, or
responding emotionally (crying) or socially (laughing).
stage is beginning to
realise that words are symbols for objects. They have a great
curiosity as to what

objects are called.
rivate speech stage 4 to 7 years. Children
often talk aloud to
themselves as they perform tasks or solve problems in this stage
of
ration of their thinking.
private speech declines and becomes much more internalised.
They solve
using private speech when faced with unusual or complex
problems (Nixon and
Aldwinckle, 2003).
BF Skinner, John Watson and Albert Bandura
Skinner, Watson and Bandura belong to a group of theorists
called the behaviourists,
. The behaviourists have played an important role in our
understanding of language development. One main premise of
behaviourism is that if
behaviours are rewarded, they will be repeated, but behaviours
that are ignored or
punished will decrease. For example, when a
promptly get very excited and repeat the sounds to the child,
reinforcing the behaviour
so the child is more likely to try to reproduce it. Behaviourists
focus on the process of
how language is acquired. The emphasis is on environmental
factors of imitation,
learning and conditioning.
Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky developed the nativist approach. Proponents of
this approach believe
that children have innate abilities to learn language an in-
them learn language. Once they begin to hear
language around them, nativists suggest that children
, 1999). Nativist theory focuses on
biological dispositions, brain development and cognitive
readiness. It emphasises the
Other language theories
Interactionists see language development as a result of the
interaction between both
nature and nurture (the environment and experiences of the
child).
Social development
There are a number of theorists who are clearly linked with
social development. In
addition to Erik Erikson, John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth
whose ideas were
the following
theorists contributed greatly to this field of theory.
Uri Bronfenbrenner

Bronfenbrenner developed the ecological systems theory. He
emphasised a balance
between nature (heredity) and nurture (environment). To
illustrate his theory, he
depicts the child as surrounded by four concentric circles, each
representing a
different set of factors that influence the child. The four
sections, from the innermost
to the outermost, are:
and other influences on the life of the child and their family.
rcle of people who indirectly
influence the
available to the family and the support networks they are
involved in.
the values,
customs and attitudes of the cultural group the child belongs to
(Berk, 1996).
Lev Vygotsky
Vygotsky is not only an important theorist in cognitive
development theory, but in
social development theory as well particularly through his
sociocultural theory.
Vygotsky emphasised the
importance of relationships and interactions between children
and more
knowledgeable peers and adults. He

peers (Berk 1996).He believed that the environment plays an
important role in a
in the social aspects of development. He focused on
the notion that children internalise feelings, emotions and ideas
and language is a
key factor in the development of concepts .
Albert Bandura, like Skinner and Watson before him, was a
behaviourist.
Behaviourists believed that learning is gradual and continuous;
that development is a
sequence of specific conditional behaviours. The main emphasis
is on the
behaviours by children, imitating caregivers and peers, thus
learning much about
society and how it operates.
Training, 2006
Social play
Play promotes both mental and social abilities in the child, and
Piaget, Vygotsky and
other theorists have all made contributions in this area.
Jean Piaget and Sara Smilansky
Both Piaget and Sara Smilansky developed categories of play,
as follows:

will use various
senses and motor skills to explore objects and their
environment.
lic play In this type of play, symbols are much more
evident. Children
can pretend that one object is another, the cubby house becomes
a rocket. This
rules of games,
changing their understanding of the purpose of rules as they get
older. Children
in the concrete operations stage are usually also in this play
stage (Nixon and
Gould 1999).
Note that Piaget did not tend to see play as learning through the
accommodation of
new information, but rather the assimilation of new materials
into existing cognitive
structures. In his view it is relaxed practice time rather than the
challenging learning
time for taking in completely new information.
Sara Smilansky
expanded to include:
nctional play which occurs in the first two years of life.
Infants explore
objects using their body (sucking and touching) and progress to
other physical

activities such as throwing.
manipulate materials
to create objects and patterns. They may not be representational
at first but are
n effect.
through their role
play. This leads to cooperative dramatic play around agreed-
upon themes (Nixon
and Gould 1999).
Further developments of social play behaviour are outlined in
Table 3.
Table 3:
Play
behaviour
Characteristics Examples Levels/ages
Imitative role
play

Child assumes a
make-believe role of
a person or object
and expresses it in
imitation and/or
verbalisation.
Child places doll
over shoulder and
pats the back
(burping),
Beginning: Role relates to the
familiar world (such as
mummy, daddy, bubba)
Advanced: Role relates to
world outside the family (such
as doctor, teacher)
Make-
believe with
regard to
objects
Child substitutes
movements, verbal
declarations, and/or
materials or toys
that are not replicas
of the object itself
or real objects.
Uses spoon as a
phone. Places
plastic plates and

cups in swing and
pushes it back
and forth.
Beginning: Real objects or
replicas used (eg. real toy car)
Advanced: Uses prop as part
of play scenario (eg. uses tea
towel as wrap for the doll)
Verbal make
believe with
regard to
actions and
situations
Child substitutes
descriptions or
declarations for
actions and
situations.
Uses blocks to
build a house and
says this is where
Mummy and
Bubba live
Beginning: Imitates simple
actions of adult (eg. takes a
kitchen sponge to wipe things)
Advanced: Actions are integral
to the play episode (eg.
cleaning so sissy can play

Persistence
in role play
Child stays within a
role of play theme
for at least 10
minutes.
Plays role of
mother, father
and daughter
within a family
play theme for 10
minutes.
Beginning: Short, sporadic
involvement (eg. child enters
area, picks up doll and leaves)
Advanced: Child stays
involved in area and the theme
for more than 10 minutes.
Interaction At least two players
interact within the
context of a play
episode .
Preschoolers
building a castle
from blocks and
wooden people.
Sharing the
equipment and
discussing where
specific people
should be placed.

Beginning: Plays alone with
no obvious awareness of
others nearby.
Advanced: Cooperative effort
to work together around a
common theme.
Verbal
Communicat
-ion
There is some
verbal interaction
related to the play
episode.
Older
preschoolers
discussing how to
redesign a bed
and dolls cot for
arrival of Nanny
and Poppy .
Beginning: Simple dialogue
around the use of toys (e.g.
there, there sissy )
Advanced: Dialogue about the
roles, props, plot of play
scenario.
This table is adapted from Smilansky (1968) and Dodge and
Colker (1992), citied in Isenberg

and Jalongo (2001, p.75)
Training, 2006
These categories are generally viewed as age-related, with
functional play appearing
first in infancy and games with rules appearing last around age
six or seven.
(particularly the inspirational work of Jean Piaget) when we
look at the levels of play.
Piaget, along with socio-emotional theorists such as Erikson,
believed that children
could use play to act out unpleasant experiences or experiences
where they had very
little power.
This explains why children entering school play teachers over
and over again with
younger children, acting out teachers who are ferocious in their
ability to order and
command. The child can imagine themselves in the position of
power and this helps
them to deal with being powerless. This is also common with
children witnessing or
involved in violent households.
Vygotsky saw play as much more significant than Piaget. He
saw it as crucial to
learning in the preschool period, particularly imaginative play.
Vygotsky saw play as a

major contributor to the development of the zone of proximal
development if children
can imagine themselves doing something, they are closer to
doing it. Play also fosters
the separation of thoughts from actions and objects (symbolic
function).
Mildred Parten
Mildred Parten focused on social play and its development.
The ability to join groups of other children, and the desire to do
so begins, at an early
age and progresses through a developmental sequence. Parten
focussed on the
different types of social play. In her research she discovered
that children of different
ages actually played together differently. They were capable of
different levels or
categories of social play. Her categories of social play are still a
useful tool to help
focus us on how social play changes and develops at different
stages of our lives.
Remember that the stages identified by Parten are not always
followed in a linear
fashion by all children in other words, a child may not progress
directly from one
stage to another. You might also find that a child will often
engage in different stages
familiarity with either the
Unoccupied play
Generally the very young infant will engage in this type of play.
They tend to be
looking at their hands or other body parts or cooing to
themselves. They do not seek

contact with others or appear to have a purpose.
Solitary play
Usually seen during infancy. Infants tend to play by themselves
totally unaware of
others around them. They will move quite quickly from one
activity to another.
Onlooker play
This can occur across many stages of development. Evidence of
onlooker play is
seen when children are near a group of other children and are
often following the
actions or copying what is happening in the play. The children,
however, do not
usually want to participate or are waiting for someone to aid
their participation.
Parallel play
This is usually seen during toddlerhood. During parallel play
toddlers will play
Associative play
This is first seen usually in the early preschool years. Children
will begin to play and
talk with each other in dramatic play situations where roles may
be taken on.

However, these roles are usually not sustained for any length of
time. There doe
seem to be a common purpose to the play.
Cooperative play
Cooperative play occurs in the later preschool years. Children
are able to take on
roles and sustain them for the duration of the play. The group of
children have agreed
upon goals and roles for the play.
Kenneth H. Rubin
Kenneth H. Rubin and his associates have been working since
the mid-
studies have been successful in combining both the Parten and
Smilansky categories
in observing the relationship between social and cognitive play.
also have
Social Play. The stages of the theory are briefly outlined in
Table 4.
Table 4:
Solitary Play Parallel Play Group Play
Functional
Play
Child plays by self
with or without
objects.
Child plays parallel to
others with or without

objects.
Child plays with a
group with or without
objects.
Constructive
Play
Child plays by self
constructing or
creating something.
others constructing or
creating something.
Child plays with a
group constructing or
creating something.
Dramatic Play Child plays by self in
pretending-type
activity.
others in pretending-
type activity.
Child plays with a
group in pretending-
type activity.
A basic introduction to child development …

116 Developmental perspectives The NSW Office of

116 Developmental perspectives The NSW Office of

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